All posts tagged: Lisa Tipton

Lisa Tipton – ETSU Distinguished Alumni

We want to congratulate our Executive Director Lisa Tipton for being honored as an ETSU- College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences Distinguished Alumni and Hall of Fame Recipient! Lisa leads our team in lifting up vulnerable families in our community through education, intervention, and relationship restoration. #LoveRestores

MeredithLisa Tipton – ETSU Distinguished Alumni
read more

Families Free – Recipient Of 100+ Tri-Cities Women Who Care’s Giving Circle

We have wonderful news – Families Free has been selected 100+ Tri-Cities Women Who Care‘s giving circle recipient! Their mission is to empower women and nonprofits in our region by facilitating a significant impact through their Big Give event. Tri-Cities Women Who Care’s collective desire to give back to our community ensures that their member donations go to work immediately through our restorative programs and services. The Families Free team is so grateful to Tri-Cities Women Who Care’s support in helping us provide for those in need.

Watch our Executive Director Lisa Tipton chat with Adrienne Osborne, Non-Profit coordinator for 100 Tri-Cities Women Who Care and Host Lynda Fontaine on “A Closer Look.”

#LoveRestores

MeredithFamilies Free – Recipient Of 100+ Tri-Cities Women Who Care’s Giving Circle
read more

TN Hero Podcast Features Families Free

We were so thrilled to be featured on The Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiative’s TN Hero Podcast! Listen to their latest episode to hear more about our restorative work in East Tennessee.

Follow this link or listen through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

#LoveRestores

MeredithTN Hero Podcast Features Families Free
read more

Families Free In The News – Families Thrive

Tammy Childress of the Bristol Herald Courier met with Families Free Executive Director Lisa Tipton and Niswonger Children’s Hospital CEO Lisa Carter to help announce our collaboration with the hospital to open Families Thrive.

Families Thrive is led by our very own Woven Coordinator Rachel Adams and Lisa Tipton. The program is designed to address the specific problems that NAS (neonatal abstinence syndrome) babies and their families face. It’s a voluntary program that not only helps educate and assist mothers, but it also helps the hospital staff work with mothers to encourage breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact. Families Thrive also offers a parenting day, motivational group day, and art therapy day for the mothers in the unit. Most importantly, the program helps connect families to the programs they may need after leaving the hospital.

Photo Courtesy of Tammy Childress/Bristol Herald Courier

“On average, about 30 percent of the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at the children’s hospital suffer from NAS,” said Lisa Carter. NAS occurs when a baby is exposed to drugs like opioids in the womb. Babies can be born withdrawing from drugs taken by the mother and many experience tremors, diarrhea, dehydration, sweating, irritability, sensitivity to light and sound, and problems with sleeping – many require specialized care.

“They want to do better. They want to give their babies better. And oftentimes once the families are discharged they fall through the cracks,” Carter said. “So the focus of the program is on the baby’s success — Families Thrive helps the moms to realize that everything they do is for the sake of the baby. So the baby, the mom and family can thrive.”

To learn more about our collaboration with Niswonger Children’s Hospital, read the full Bristol Herald Courier article here. #LoveRestores

MeredithFamilies Free In The News – Families Thrive
read more

Getting To Know Our Executive Director – Lisa Tipton

Lisa Tipton has served as the Executive Director of Families Free since 2008. She is a strong advocate for women’s ministries, drug and alcohol treatment, and the restoration of her community. Lisa is also a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor and currently serves as the clinical supervisor of the drug and alcohol clinical component at Families Free.

As a result of her continuous efforts to build a successful nonprofit organization, Families Free holds the Regional Therapy Family Preservation Contract for the Northeast Region of Tennessee – this is in addition to being a credential service provider for drug and alcohol assessments, clinical parenting assessments, drug and alcohol treatment, parenting education, and homemaker services. Families Free also holds the contract for the First Judicial District Felony Drug Court in Elizabethton, TN where services began in early 2017.

Families Free is a licensed co-occurring drug and alcohol treatment facility and is responsible for creating the model for the Woven Program – serving mothers of NAS infants funded through the Department of Health. Families Free consists of 14 employees whose passion, skills, and desire to serve have the ability to reach more than 155 families a month through outreach programs, various community agencies, and the services provided for female inmates. Lisa’s mission is to strengthen our community by building the capacity of vulnerable families through education, intervention, and restoring relationships – a mindset she has infused within the work of Families Free.

Lisa’s knowledge and passion mirrors our organization’s dedication to making positive impacts on at-risk and often overlooked populations, by providing quality, evidence-based services that are combined with the faith-based principles of compassion, healing, and restoration to promote positive lifestyle changes.

When not working within her various roles, Lisa enjoys serving at Calvary Church in Johnson City, TN and she was also recently honored as an ETSU College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences Distinguished Alumni and Hall of Fame Recipient, in addition to being named one of the Leaders in Christian Service by Milligan College in 2017.

MeredithGetting To Know Our Executive Director – Lisa Tipton
read more

Connect With Love. Updates, Inspiration, and Hope Are Waiting